Locked in a tight race with Democrat Tony Evers, Republican Gov. Scott Walker looked to Vice President Mike Pence to give him a boost on Wednesday with the election less than a month away.
Pence's two closed-door fundraisers for Walker, in Green Bay and Eau Claire, came on the same day that a new Marquette University Law School poll showed the governor's race to be about even.
The survey, conducted Oct. 3 through Sunday, showed voter attitudes in Wisconsin for the first time since the culmination of the nomination fight over U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh won confirmation on Saturday, just over a week after a Senate hearing that captivated the nation. Kavanaugh strongly denied allegations from Christine Blasey Ford that he had sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school decades ago.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin voted against Kavanaugh's confirmation, while her Republican opponent Leah Vukmir was a vocal supporter . The poll showed Baldwin's lead over Vukmir to be nearly unchanged from September, at 53 percent to 43 percent.
Walker tried to distance himself from the debate while saying he thought Kavanaugh was qualified to serve on the court. Evers, meanwhile, said he believed Ford's accusations and that Kavanaugh should not have been confirmed.
Both Republicans and Democrats have tried to use that confirmation fight to their advantage in the Nov. 6 election. The last Marquette poll , done in September just before Ford's accusation against Kavanaugh became public, showed that Democrats were more motivated than Republicans to vote in Wisconsin. That helped to give Evers a 5-point advantage over Walker, which the latest poll showed Walker had made up.
The new poll had Walker at 47 percent with Evers at 46 percent.
The survey of 799 likely voters was conducted Oct. 3 through Sunday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
Walker has cast himself as the underdog in the race and urged his supporters to believe the polls.
Evers used the Pence visit on Monday to hit on one of the central themes of his campaign -- health care. He released a video renewing his challenge for Walker to drop Wisconsin from a multi-state lawsuit seeking to repeal the national health care law. Evers argued in the video that repealing the Affordable Care Act would "gut" insurance protections because it would do away with the guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
Walker supports passing a state law that would guarantee coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.
Polls have consistently shown health care to be one of the highest priority issues for Wisconsin voters this year.
